I like the high rank bonus idea. Ranks A and B from the vehicle table can give an extra rank D or E bonus (respectively) from a different table. I really like that you get a bonus weapon (stinger) if you are a scorpion, but I don't really like that an ape is a rank higher than a vintage heavy tank. What is your rationale for putting animals higher than big vehicles?

For the Weapons part, is it assumed that every transformer has a basic weapon such as a pistol/blaster of some sort, or do you only get a weapon when you roll on this chart? All decepticons had weapons, and only the "civilian" autobots were unarmed. Suppose we add a column D to your existing weapons chart. This column will allow for basic fist-fighting, small pistols/machine guns, and basically anything that would only annoy Grimlock. Column C could keep the bigger guns, the swords and axes, the rockets, and drones. Column B would contain utility upgrades like you've currently got. X-ray vision, radar, shielding, etc.. Column A would contain weapon upgrades like energon weapons (Optimus' energon swords and ax come to mind), seismic shock, long-range weapon, EMP charged weapon. etc.. Now the fun part, if you select a high weapon rank, you get an bonus roll on the weapon chart at two ranks lower. So if you are rank B, you get a utility upgrade and a basic weapon. If you are rank A, you get a weapon upgrade and an advanced weapon. If you are rank C, you only get an advance weapon. Rank E means no weapon (decepticons can not have weapons rank E).

For the other three features, let's try to work in additional bonuses for having a rank of A or B. Go to Comment

Size does not mean more power or more gadgets. It usually means that the bot is stronger, tougher, and more intimidating though.

Each transformer should have a motivation in addition to a purpose. This will help explain why they make each decision. Optimus leads the autobots, but he is willing to die to save one transformer. Starscream wants to please or overthrow Megatron, but he usually just obeys his orders.

Each transformer should have a power rating for the power of their Spark. The Spark rating is the will power of the transformer to overcome any obstacle. Transformers with the strongest sparks often have "aberrant" powers. The more common aberrant sparks allow communication between sparks as if by telepathy. The duocons are able to split their "mitotic sparks" between multiple bodies. More powerful aberrations allow feats of power that seem almost magical in nature: Starscream has an indestructible spark, Rampage's spark was also indestructible and it granted him rapid repair powers, Megatron's spark somehow mutated with the whole Noble/Savage thing and later gained the abilities to float around, speak disembodied, and eventually "consume" other sparks.

Some transformers can also have multiple alternate forms. One alternate form option is the ability to combine with other transformers. These combiners, like Devastator, have a new arsenal and abilities when combined.

I would also say that players could choose options other than Autobot or Decepticon. Dinobots, Insecticons, Vehicons, Mini-cons, Maximals, and Predicons are all valid options. Each would have a different type of purpose and existence. A particularly evil character might be allowed to play a Blendtron, Herald of Unicron, but I would be cautious about overdoing it at that point.

I like the character creation that you did, however, anything that I got from the random charts was both dull and strange (I got an autobot SUV with raming armor or a Decepticon futuristic space vehicle with a multi-tool). It seems like the system could benefit from a few more tables for each of the 5 features.

For example, the Weapon feature should instead be the Armament feature. No matter what rank you select, you get some level of tool (most tools like a hammer or wrecking ball could double as a weapon, but it's not as effective).With a rank of D or better, you get to roll on the random weapon table. With a rank or B or better, you also get to roll on the defensive equipment table (including armor and other defensive measures). So with rank B, you would roll three times for armament: once for column B on the Tools table, once for column B on the weapon table, and once for column B on the defensive equipment table.

The Vehicle feature could instead be the Protoform feature. This is a measure of your size (A being Mega, E being tiny). Each size category has random transformations suitable to that size with 2 entries: one for autobots and one for decepticons (and maybe a third for beast form). With a rank of D or better, you get to roll on another table for additional transforming features like hybrid, multiple forms, additional environment capabilities (underwater, space, etc.), silent transformation, etc.. With a rank of B or better, you get to roll on another table for awesome transforming features like extra weapons, drones, burrowing, flight (or space flight), etc.

Skills, Power, and Advantages all could have additional tables and benefits. While this does mean a lot more work coming up with features, it would impart much more meaning to assigning the power levels.

If you want more details, I'd be happy to throw a bunch out, but here are at least some general ideas to use as jumping off points:
Nightmares, fire, a hunter, the devil, wrath of God, taxes, death, barbarians (or reavers or anything similar), a curse, a big angry bird, a hitman, a vendetta, a corrupt government, a heat-seeking missile, an insect swarm, a virus, a pack of wolves, an erupting volcano, a collapsing bridge, a terminator (or any robot menace), nuclear fallout, a black hole, mind control, and my personal favorite, a T-Rex. Go to Comment

I really like the idea of rampaging dragons just because that's what they do. A force of nature much like a tornado.

I have some confusion about how things work. You say that the queen digs a lair to lay her eggs and often dies during the mating, but then you say that the Queen travels to the most enticing territory to mate and will afterwards use that territory to dig a lair to lay eggs. So does the queen mate first or dig a lair for her eggs first? And if she mates first and dies, does that mean that the young will be born above ground instead of in a lair giving them an easier time with rampaging as young? And what is the second shell of rock?

Aside from unanswered questions, I really like the idea. The dragons don't attack the city as much as they just clumsily crash through it while courting. Go to Comment

The beast would have a massive source of food: humans. As grizzly as it sounds, huddled masses of the poor would probably be the first targets. An average human or three is probably a decent meal for a chimera. As for housing, the snake DNA would suggest burrowing a tunnel to sleep in (or possibly sleeping in water). The other genetic instincts would probably concur with tunnels. If allowed to live on instinct alone, the chimera would likely live in caves or tunnels (sewers perhaps), be fiercely territorial, and form large nests that could house dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of chimera as the local food source (population) allowed. Go to Comment

I love the rampant exponential growth. The chimera has lots of potential. I mentioned most of my thoughts in my reply above. In my humble opinion, the chimera might be better suited to be setting-independent. The futuristic "rich vs. poor" and "dying planet" settings seem like they could be completely independent of the chimera. But that said, breeding a hideous monster to protect rich people is pretty sweet.

Lastly, I would give armor plating to the brood mother (the original chimera) and maybe some other cybernetic enhancements. This would make her nearly unstoppable while her offspring are still able to be killed. In my mind, rich people with big labs breeding big monsters would have big fail-safes in place. Armor plating, mounted lasers, muscle augmentations, "adamantium" claws, or any face-palm worthy B-movie monster ridiculousness would make the compound-destroying rampage more believable. In addition, it would make for an epic boss fight. Go to Comment

Useful stuff. I've always hated the inn encounter to get people together. I'm a cleric, what am I doing at an inn? I'm an angry sorcerer, I cast darkness and just safely leave the stupid brawl. I'm a barbarian, I'm gonna smash in everybody's faces indiscriminately until I'm either passed out from exhausted or ale or until I'm knocked out.

There's always a better way, but there is still something wonderfully esthetic about starting a game with a good old throw down. Go to Comment

4. The Tournament:
A challenge is issued by a well-known lord to any who wish to attend. A grand tournament will be held, and the winner will receive a worthy prize.

The idea here is that everyone has a reason for traveling to this big town for a tournament. They can complete in melee, archery, or mage dueling. Non-combative types will be attracted to the surge of people and market goods (aka. cheaper stuff). Each contestant will have to compete in a single or double elimination type tournament against standard fare peasants, hunters, workers, a few militia, and a few off-duty city guards. It is explained that the fight is only to incapacitate or land a certain number of blows on your opponent, not to kill. Each victory should come with a small compensation, and the players will likely have to fight each other at some point. At least one of the contestants should be a disguised antagonist (covertly or obviously, your choice). I used a red-eyed figured in black armor who wielded a spiked chain and whose touch would cause burns. This figure later turned out to be a skeletal spellsword. The victor should get something worth the effort. I had a powerful seer tell the victor his future.

At the very end, you should crash the party. I had dragons drop thousands of bones onto the city and then had a necromancer animate all of them as skeletons to attack the city. This was all a distraction for the black night to kidnap someone important and run off into a sewer. While all of the others are distracted, duty calls the players to save the victim or fight the evil together. Afterwards, you can have someone hire them as a team or give them a good carrot to chase. Be careful that you don't challenge them too much to start with because many of the players will have exhausted their spells and abilities already from the tournament.

This method of getting the party together gives the players the option conversing and getting to know each other at will, and most of them will already be familiar with the roles of the others from the tournament. Players can also choose to remain mysterious while still having a good reason to stay with the party. Go to Comment

When I watch a Godzilla movie with space monsters, they always manage to float effortlessly in whichever direction they want to. That is pretty much what I had in mind. I like leaving it to fantasy, but in the spirit of catering to all styles of play, I propose this:

The Qualm has a radioactive heart that constantly generates heat. The Qualm need only "leak" some of its heat or atmosphere in the opposite direction to propel it forward. As far as sunlight, this is actually for an increase in radiation and heat. When taken out of sunlight, it has to work twice as hard to heat itself. Go to Comment

This is exactly what I was thinking. Godzilla and friends could fight their way through the massive canopy to the surface and then to the heart. Alternatively, Godzilla and friends could be endangered by the Qualm and humans must travel to the Qualm's surface, brave the perils, and detonate the heart to save Godzilla. Go to Comment

I am beginning to regret introducing physics. Technically, with no resistance it could eventually reach near the speed of light by only releasing one atom at a time. That said, I had no intention of making a monster that made intense logical sense. This is a monster for Godzilla to fight, and in line with common kaiju rational, it really doesn't need much explanation other than a space plant grown out of nuclear waste. Psionic might make more sense as you said below.

I rather like to think of the Qualm as having no apparent means of locomotion. It's just a massive ball of plant life that speeds through space in whatever direction has the closest resources.

With your comments and olontur's, I'm considering revising this Qualm into a less scientific being. Go to Comment

Update: Added a big feature to the Qualm that now allows it to fire blasts of radiation or slowly release radiation like a rocket through large glowing pods. Added a Travel section. Removed specific temperatures to contribute to the fantasy feel rather than science. Added a little to the Appearance. Added quite a bit of clarification to the Qualm's cold weakness. Go to Comment

Thanks! I was actually thinking something along the lines of Godzilla and friends fighting the canopy while the Earth Defense Force was fighting to the core.

I wanted a name that was simple and foreboding. At first, I thought of a Pip & Flinx evil entity called the Vom, and I just kinda went through a bunch on monosyllabic names till the Qualm came and stuck. Go to Comment

Ahhh. Cheesy horror at it's best! Glad to see that I can just pick this up and tell my players that they are stuck in the middle of it all. I especially like the redshirts reference and the ability to use them as meatshields.

The only thing that is really missing is that the cheerleader gets captured and dragged away alive into the queen's lair prompting a dramatic and improbable rescue attempt complete with an hour-long improvised gearing up scene.

Giving the PCs a bit of useful knowledge at the beginning can help the players distinguish themselves from NPCs of equal caliber. For example, maybe the awkward scientist knows that spiders are flammable or that they can be distracted by distant vibrations (throw something over there). Maybe the Jock was a quarterback and can stun big spiders for a second or two by hitting them in the face with a football. Cheesy is acceptable. Go to Comment

Fun idea indeed, but there are lots of questions in my head. Are the wasps magical? Why does it take 2 stings (magic would make sense)? Can the stingers/poison be used as/on weapons (changeling darts)? What happens if a pregnant woman is stung? Can the wasps sting each other for mating (it would be kinda cool if all wasps were male and they had to sting each other for mating rights)?

Can I throw out a possibility? What if the wasps have a type of DNA mutagen poison. This poison causes pain throughout the entire body, but enough poison overcomes your natural resistances and mutates your DNA, consuming your excess fatty tissues to fuel rapid transformation. That would be super painful! The poison would need a paralytic to paralyze someone for hours, or perhaps enough poison would render you incapacitated as your entire body is overwhelmed by the mutation. Enough poison and you would simply die from pain or fall apart as the mutation gets too aggressive.

It's not perfect, but it's something. Magic would be easier to explain. Go to Comment